Firm declines to comment
A Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) trainee has left the firm midway through his training contract to go full-time selling application advice to students.
Yan-Kelvin Monney, who was a second-year trainee at HSF before leaving in March of this year, is the founder of Mindfull Learning, an online education business he founded in 2020, about three years before joining the City outfit.
HSF declined to comment on whether it was aware that one of its former trainees was selling application advice through an online business during his training contract.
Monney is the sole director of the business, which offers a range of tutoring services, summer school programmes, and various PDF resources for those pursuing careers as City lawyers.
The resources, first reported on by RollOnFriday, range from £29.99 to £69.99, offering comprehensive guidance on vacation scheme and training contract applications, assessment centers, and interviews for leading City law firms such as Clifford Chance, Hogan Lovells, Macfarlanes, and Travers Smith.
The website states that the resources are created with contributions from hundreds of future trainee solicitors and legal professionals, and features a range of glowing endorsements from current trainees at top firms.
What remains unclear is what HSF knew about the former trainee’s side hustle.
A firm spokesperson declined to say whether it was aware that he was selling these guides after accepting a TC or during his time at the firm, or if they endorsed the business model. They also remained tight-lipped on why Monney had left the firm, where trainees earn £105,000 across their two year training contract.
And while many will celebrate Monney entrepreneurial get-go, others have questioned whether it’s appropriate to charge law students for careers advice.
One aspiring solicitor told us that while the guides may provide an understanding of what a successful application looks like, the business is “arguably profiting from students during an already stressful period”.
“Charging up to £69.99 for these guides negatively impacts the steps forward the industry has taken — and will leave socially mobile students feeling disadvantaged and deflated,” they added.
Another future trainee solicitor told us “something like this might be a good jumping off point for those who don’t know where to start with vac scheme and TC applications”, but that students “need to be careful about how much they take from and rely on such a resource, because exemplars can only take one so far”.
Monney isn’t the first, and likely won’t be the last, to turn application advice into a business venture. Legal Cheek has previously reported that trainees and even qualified associates from Magic Circle and US firms have sold careers advice through platforms like Gumtree, while similar services to Monney’s are also being promoted on online.
Monney didn’t respond to Legal Cheek’s request for comment.